The Browns walked into Sunday with a real chance to reshape the AFC North picture. Instead, they left Pittsburgh with a loss that not only cost them a shot at a road win over the Steelers for the first time in more than 20 years, but also dropped them behind both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati in the division race after the Bengals edged the Tennessee Titans in overtime.
That’s the kind of result that lingers. Cleveland had controlled the first meeting with Pittsburgh, but this one went the other way because the Steelers put together a smart offensive plan and the Browns’ offense couldn’t answer.
That has been a familiar problem this season. As Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (for now) once famously said: "You take you a deuce, you don’t sit there and look at it.
You flush it and move on."
The Browns have to do exactly that before turning to the New Orleans Saints. And if there’s one part of this roster that can keep moving without getting stuck on the loss, it’s the rookie class. Cleveland’s young players were thrown into the fire again, and several of them showed why the future still looks worth watching even if the present keeps getting messy.
Left tackle Spencer Fano had the toughest afternoon of the bunch. He played all 70 snaps and finished with a 56.0 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, which made him Cleveland’s 11th-best offensive player among 19 qualifiers.
That’s a rough number, but the matchup explains a lot of it. Fano was dealing with T.J.
Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig, and the Steelers made sure he felt every bit of that pressure.
He gave up eight pressures, including a sack, and was the Browns’ lowest-graded pass blocker up front. The run blocking was a different story, with Fano earning a 66.5 grade there.
He also drew three penalties, though only one was accepted. It was a hard day, but one that fits the expectation that he’ll be better than this.
KC Concepcion’s day was quieter than the one he had a week earlier. Pittsburgh kept him in check, and he was targeted only four times, catching three passes for 37 yards.
Twelve of those yards came after the catch. He also provided Cleveland’s best punt return of the game, a 21-yarder that showed the burst he brings to the table.
Still, it was a little surprising to see Deshaun Watson throw for more than 300 yards, much of it coming in garbage time, without leaning on the rookie receiver more often. Concepcion finished with a 55.9 overall grade, good for 12th on the offense.
His false start on the final play of the game put a fittingly ugly cap on the afternoon. If the result had been closer, that mistake would have drawn far more attention.
Denzel Boston’s recent surge has cooled off. He hasn’t topped 50 receiving yards in a game for a month now, and against Pittsburgh he was targeted 11 times - second on the team behind Harold Fannin Jr. - but turned that into just six catches for 37 yards. That total matched Concepcion’s yardage, which is a strange little footnote from a game that didn’t offer many bright spots.
Even so, Boston graded out well, landing as the sixth-best player on offense with a 61.1 mark. He wasn’t charged with a drop, which suggests Watson’s throws weren’t always where they needed to be. Boston also came down with two of three contested catches, continuing to show he can win when the ball is in the air and bodies are around him.
On the defensive side, Emmanuel McNeil-Warren kept making his case for more work. He started with the Browns in a three-safety look and played 31 snaps, even though he still sits behind Ronnie Hickman and Grant Delpit on the depth chart. The rookie was busy, finishing with nine combined tackles and allowing just one completion in coverage, a 12-yard gain.
McNeil-Warren ended up as Cleveland’s eighth-ranked defender out of 20. Notably, he finished ahead of both Hickman and Delpit in the grading.
Austin Barber may have been the most encouraging rookie of the day. He played all 70 snaps at right guard and held up well against a Steelers interior line led by Cam Heyward. Barber allowed just three pressures and no sacks on 50 pass plays, and he also graded slightly above average as a run blocker.
That performance earned him a 65.6 overall grade, which made him Cleveland’s fifth-best offensive player. Given the draft capital involved, Barber has a strong argument as the Browns’ best value pick so far. Pair that with Fano, and Cleveland may have found two keepers.
Tight end Carsen Ryan had a different kind of week. He was released after the Browns activated quarterback Dillon Gabriel from injured reserve, but after clearing waivers he was brought back to the practice squad and used one of his call-ups to stay available. Ryan didn’t get any offensive snaps, though he did play 12 special teams snaps and finished with a 50.5 grade in that phase, 34th out of 36 participants.
That ties into a bigger issue for Cleveland’s offense. The Browns still don’t have much of a blocking tight end presence, and that’s part of the reason the run game keeps sputtering. A little self-scouting ought to push Todd Monken and company to give Ryan, or someone outside the building, more chances to see whether the picture changes.
The personnel usage numbers back that up. At a time when NFL offenses are leaning harder on tight ends, the Browns haven’t run a single play this season in 13-personnel, which means one running back and three tight ends.
The league average for that grouping is 9.31%, according to SumerSports. Cleveland has also used 12-personnel, with one running back and two tight ends, on only 22.43% of its plays, which ranks 27th in the league.
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Browns Are Suddenly Tied To A Franchise Shaking QB Debate
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Deshaun Watsons Status Just Put Browns-Saints In A Different Light
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For a Browns team trying to keep its footing, the timing matters as much as the opponent. The betting market has already nudged in response to the uncertainty, a small but telling sign of how much Watsons presence changes the outlook for Cleveland as it heads into a game that suddenly looks different than it did just a few days ago. [Read more 🡒]